MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. The amount of organizations designated as foreign agents in Russia is the same as in the United States, but the punishment for those who violate it is lighter, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out at his annual year-end press conference on Thursday.
"A total of 74 organizations out of 200,000 NGOs have been labeled as foreign agents here, that’s 0.034%, the same as in the US, but there aren’t any tough regulations [here] like those in the US, which particularly include criminal responsibility," he highlighted.
"If you don’t stop your activities there [in the US], you may face criminal prosecution and up to five years in prison. It can happen even when you end your activities and shut down your organization, you can’t escape criminal responsibility. [You’d face a] five-year term. We don’t have anything like that here. We don’t ban the activities of such organizations. We only want the organizations involved in domestic political activities to clearly state what their sources of funding are. That’s all. And they can continue their work. Our law is far more liberal," Putin emphasized. He added, however, that there were some issues with the law, particularly related to the understanding of the notion of "political activities" and rules regulating this work.